Commentary

Opinion: With elections approaching, it’s time to clean up Oakridge city council

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By GEORGE CUSTER/Editor  —  Our city is in trouble. It’s been a while, now, since the majority of the Oakridge city council has operated for the good of its citizens and not along personal agenda lines. Power plays and voting blocs have stifled Oakridge’s progress in the form of vanity, petty animosities, and desire for power and popularity. This needs to stop.

let’s go back a couple of years

Our current mayor, Bryan Cutchen, was interviewed for the position of city administrator by a select civilian committee, the city’s department heads, as well as a meet-and-greet for the community. He was given a welcoming thumbs up by all.

So, why was our current city administrator, James Cleavenger, hired behind closed doors? No committees. No reviews. No competition. A co-worker of the then-reserve police officer Cleavenger told The Herald that he was “going to be the next CA” months before the council could force Cutchen to resign by bringing his integrity and character into question before the public.

Let’s back up a few months, though, and talk about Cutchen. The Herald learned that the council was planning (again, outside of earshot of the public) to not renew his contract as city administrator after year one. He had received rave reviews from officials across Lane County and the State of Oregon for his performance up to then. Why, then, would the council, led by Chrissy Hollett and Dawn Kinyon, decide to terminate him unless there was a scheme afoot to put someone in that position that would be more malleable to the council’s designs? A yes man.

The mayor during this time was Kathy Holston. She fought valiantly to keep Cutchen. However, Hollett had a grip on the council with a majority vote made up of her hand-picked cronies. Nothing could get passed without her blessing. Chrissy and her henchmen would soon go after Holston as well.

The Highway 58 Herald heard of the pending vote to not renew Cutchen’s contract and went to work. The voting public needed to be appraised of this. Without overwatch, city governments tend operate a little “unilaterally”, not always in the best interest of the public they serve. This has been documented throughout the history of governments. Once the news got out of the impending contract cancellation, the ensuing regular meeting of council was greeted with a flurry of calls and statements to retain Cutchen, both in person and by written statements to be entered into the record.

Caught with the revelation that they probably shouldn’t carry out their plan, Chrissy and her posse allowed Cutchen to remain as CA for another year under contract.

Having their recent plan to bring in “their guy” sooner than later foiled, council mounted a campaign of personal attacks on Cutchen and Holston. He resigned within the year, stating that he would not have his integrity questioned. Mayor Holston resigned soon thereafter, succumbing to the onslaught of nastiness from the council group of 5.

Cutchen ran for mayor within the year and won by a landslide margin.

Now, onto some of the actions I believe have stifled progress, and in some instances, pushed us backward as a city. There are also some personal agenda items which you’ll be able to hopefully identify. Not in any particular order:

RAIN

RAIN, or Regional Accelerator & Innovation Network, comes to Oakridge monthly to energize prospective new and existing businesses. I attended their maiden venture to Oakridge. One of the “come-ons” was that RAIN was partnered with a number of angel investors who had money to invest in promising startups. haven’t heard much on that since their initial visit. After giving RAIN $7,500 to keep coming to Oakridge and supporting startups for the first year, Hollett decided that she would sign a contract and write RAIN a check from the city’s coffers for $10,000 for the next year without asking council’s approval/vote. “Sorry” was all the citizens got.

RAIN may be doing some nice things helping new entrepreneurs with the basics of starting a business. On the other hand, there are other organizations that has been around for many a decade that specializes in the helping of new or existing businesses: The Service Corps of Retired Executives, or SCORE. They’re available at no cost. As the name implies, SCORE is comprised of retired executives from numerous disciplines, not a bunch of young kids who have been spoon fed course language. Next, closer to home, is the Lane Economic Development Center. Again, experienced professionals who have the information and contacts to assist young businesses. Lastly, Lane Community College has all the courses one might need to get a business off the ground.

My point: did Oakridge really need to spend $17,500 so that a bunch of potential startups could do a coffee klatch at the Mane Street Cafe on the city’s dime? I’m sure the cafe liked the business. I’m sure there will be a lot of pushbacks from those who attended the RAIN monthly meeting. My suggestion is to say, “thanks, but no thanks” to RAIN. Let’s consider local business professionals forming a mentoring group. SCORE and Lane Economic Development Center are there to help. Or, for a few dollars, enroll in LCC’s business classes.

Fee waivers

Second on my list of concerns that have plagued our fine city: Fee waivers. We have some nice parks. So much so that a lot of potential events covet Greenwaters Park and its amenities. They come from far away to hold their affairs there. This includes a lot of locals. But let’s remember that to have a great park requires keeping it up – maintenance, utilities, cleanup, and upgrades to maintain safety and compliance. Who pays for maintaining all of Oakridge’s fine parks? The city’s public works division, by way of your tax dollars, does. Some of council has been quick to cut seasonal workers out of the city’s budget that had been requested for by the public works director. Parks don’t just maintain themselves.

With the struggles that Oakridge has had trying to establish a balanced budget these last several years, a prudent person (insert councilor) might not want to be so magnanimous with the city’s funds. Everything costs.

Hollettt, mayor-turned-councilmember, and her council gave away tens of thousands of dollars in fee waivers. Those dollars should have been collected by Oakridge to support the parks, not let them go afoul. When the city’s maintenance personnel have to work on the parks, that time should be accounted for within the maintenance budget.

There are groups that should be considered for a fee waiver, but for-profit events, no. The cry that they bring money to the city is a smoke job. They’ll pay the fee because our parks are perfect for their event, and they know that. One councilor, Dawn Kinyon, went so far as to say, “I will always vote to waive fees for the park”. Not good fiscal management in my book. At the very least, events should put up a partially refundable cleaning/damage deposit.

Many towns can afford to grant these waivers. Oakridge is currently not one of them.

There are, however, in my opinion, some groups that should be considered for a fee waiver, particularly small nonprofits.

Facebook

If you’re thinking that I’m not a fan of Facebook, you’re right. The local Facebook forum is the platform of choice for those who want to rant without looking the subject who they might be ranting about in the eye. That’s food for a later discussion. As to the council and, specifically Hollett’s and Kinyon’s use, instead of the city’s Facebook page is concerned, you should be appalled.

Chatting is one thing. However, for the councilors to discuss situations that are clearly on the city’s forefront is out of line. Kinyon decided to conduct a citizen survey at one point. The survey only reached her audience, leaving the rest of Oakridge out. The city attorney has advised council that they should put their remarks and comments on the city’s Facebook page. Comments or opinions by elected officials need to be archived for retrieval when necessary. However, some council members continue to disregard the city attorney’s advice.

The Facebook page, owned by Hollett, is not open to the public. Numerous people, including me, have been blocked from the site. I’d never posted so much as a comment on it. At some point years ago, I noticed that I couldn’t even look at it. I’d been blocked. I tried to get back on but with no response. Even our current mayor is blocked! It seems that anyone who might argue or take umbrage with the mainstream audience on the chat are blocked. So much for freedom of speech and of the press. And, what happened to the major push for transparency these councilors promised when they were running for office.

Naturally, The Herald has been called every name in the book by this closed site.

Thankfully for the councilors running their own little chat room, the Oregon Ethics Committee doesn’t seem to care what small, rural towns do out in the mountains, regardless of what their directives indicate. Maybe it’s to be expected.

Ballet anyone?

I believe that children in our rural community should be able to be exposed to the finer arts like ballet. Our councilors thought so too, to the point of asking the Eugene Ballet Company (a for-profit business) to come to Oakridge and use the Greenwaters Park community building free for the summer.

When the ballet company was contacted by the Herald, they were told that the company had not asked for a fee waiver for the park. Without council knowledge, Hollett gave the company free use of the building. The lost revenue from the fee waiver and the unavailability of the use of the building by possible paying users compounds the lost revenue. Who paid for this? You did, of course.

The Ballet company was ready to come to Oakridge and pay the required fee for use of the building.

Special fire district or fire authority?

Councilors, who are also on the rolls of the Oakridge Fire Department, have coveted the OFD to the detriment of the city’s budget. Also, rumors of malfeasance within the OFD run rampant in Oakridge.

Several years ago, Hollett and her block of councilors got the idea that the OFD should form a Special Fire District. This district would be separated in budget, control, and oversight from the city. Both Oakridge and Westfir agreed to fund a study, to the combined tune of $12,000, to determine if a fire district would be beneficial. The study deemed the district, in the case of the Oakridge area, is not feasible.

When that didn’t pan out, she now wants to form a Fire Authority. As with the Special Fire District, the Fire Authority would take all control and oversight away from the city. Either of these schemes would give such autonomy to the fire department that recourse by the citizens who may have concerns or grievances would be out of the control of the City of Oakridge. Yet the city would still be responsible for the fire department. The fire department would operate behind their own closed doors. Again, transparency, or the lack thereof, persists.

It’s not fair!

Lastly, one of the mayor’s duties is to appoint member of council to chair the various committees and boards. Hollett, a current sitting councilor, refused to chair the library board. The reason given: “I want to be on OEDAC”. When the mayor said that the library board was where she was being assigned, she said, “it’s not fair!” She has never accepted one of the primary board positions.

I learned a valuable piece of advice while serving in the Marines. The then Commandant of the Marine Corps said, “It’s not the job that you are given that counts, it’s how well you do the job you’re assigned.”

Elections are right around the corner. In fact, your ballots are probably in your mailbox today.  Oakridge needs to be respected again by our partner communities, counties, and by the State. We need to sweep clean the personal agendas and the power and personality tug-of-wars out of Oakridge City Hall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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George Custer lives in Oakridge with his wife Sayre. George is a former smokejumper from his hometown of Cave Junction, a former captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. and ran a construction company in Southern California. George assumed the volunteer duties as the Editor of the Highway 58 Herald in 2022. He loves riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, building all things wood, and playing drums on the weekends in his office.

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